Minnesota Law Requiring Law Enforcement To Test Rape Kits in Timely Manner Takes Effect

Moorhead Police tell us the department has not had issues with untested rape kits

ST. PAUL, Minn. — In 2015, the BCA found there were more than 3,400 untested rape kits. Today, that all changes.

“After a rape kit is done and the hospital sends notice to law enforcement, after 10 days, law enforcement must pick it up. Then after it’s picked up, they have 60 days to send it to the BCA,” said Rep. Marion O’Neill of Maple Lake, who championed the law.

That’s if the victim has given permission to submit the kit for testing. The only other time law enforcement would not have to do a rape kit is unless they contact the county attorney.

“Unless they’ve had a conversation with our county attorney to determine that they don’t want to send it because it doesn’t have evidentiary value, so if there’s an issue of consent and the point would not point to who that person was. They already know who that person is,” O’Neill said.

The Sexual Assault Examination Reform Kit Law also requires police to respond to inquiries they receive about a rape kit they’re processing within 30 days. Before this law was signed into the legislature, lawmakers say there was nothing to ensure the rape kits were done in a certain timeline.

“The law was absolutely silent on any guidelines to law enforcement in dealing with rape kits, which is why we had the backlog to begin with,” O’Neill said. “Hospitals were inundated with kits that had been sitting there for months and sometimes over a year.”

Organizations supporting victims of sexual abuse and violence can already see how helpful the new law can be.

“I think it’s important for anyone to have a voice and it appears that this legislation does so and at YWCA, we broadly support legislation that provides protections for victims, holds perpetrators accountable and eradicates these horrific crimes,” said Erin Prochnow, YWCA of Cass-Clay CEO.

“My hope is that moving this forward will not only take this whole sexual violence seriously through taking the evidence seriously, but it also begins to change the culture within law enforcement,” O’Neill said.

Moorhead Police tell us the department has not had issues with untested rape kits.